After much thought and planning, I have moved this site to www.ljmaggie.com. My web designer and I have been hard at work to make it live which is why I haven’t posted in a while. I also have a Facebook Fan Page, www.facebook.com/ljmaggie.

Tonight starts another season of The Bachelor. As I have admitted before I am closet lover of the show. I don’t watch the night it is on, instead I watch it online, mostly so I don’t have to sit through the commercials. I also check out what Reality Steve has to say on his sites. He does have some great inside information.

So when Brad Womack (the new bachelor) did his first run on this reality show, he was liked but in the end he chose no one. Which shocked viewers and broke the hearts of two women, Jenni Croft and DeAnna Papas. I personally loved DeAnn myself.

Now he is back and claimed he has changed and wants to find a partner. He has already said that he found love. So we all know he at least ends up with one woman and does not break her heart. That is a good sign. The promos for this season are pretty funny with one woman slapping him across the face and telling him it is from all women in America. Apparently the producers and ABC did not tell the women who the Bachelor would be. Normally they will tell the contestants who the Bachelor or Bachelorette will be before they go on the show. You can understand why in this case they didn’t.

Brad also has 30 women to choose from this time and not the 20 he had the first time, and well they have said Brad will be showing off his body more. Now if that isn’t a reason to watch this season. They will be getting the female audience back with that one. One other twist ABC has added- the two women that were dumped by Brad will be coming back to face him. The look on his face during that promo is just priceless.

I will be watching it online once it is posted. (Mostly because the man and I have a standing Monday night date and I don’t think he would watch it.) Will you be watching? And do you think he has really changed?

They say the best way to get over someone is to meet someone else. Even though I sort of believe it, I decided to get back to browsing Chemistry.com anyway.

When I logged in, I had a bunch of matches that they sent me. Some were good looking and had similar interests. Others, well I don’t understand how Chemistry does their matching. They sent me guys that were looking for someone that was looking for a girl with a different body type than me, didn’t like sports, or was looking for someone no older then 25, (Yeah that guy is 41). Really?

Then there was a very good looking guy who noticed me. He is a single dad or a little girl, loves sports, and admitted in his profile to liking a couple of chick flicks. Since now you can email the person right away, I emailed him. It was short and flirty. So then it was a couple of days and no response. So I looked in “my not reallys”, and he put no spark. WHAT? Did he really express interest in me or is that something that Chemistry did. I couldn’t understand it. The other thing I can’t understand about these guys is when they decide that there is no spark they don’t always give a reason. How hard is it to click on the drop down box and click, Not A Good Fit. I even do that. Some guys do put a reason such as, physical distance to far, not a good fit or different interests, but many don’t.

Even though I was frustrated getting back into again, I am communicating with a couple of guys now. We will see what happens.

Today I finally got the chance to watch the movie, “Up In The Air”. I had been told that I need to watch it and finally gave in and got it. Though it deals with people getting laid off, the deeper message is that all of our lives are up in the air.

The people in the movie didn’t see it coming that they were going to lose their job, some have been with the company over 20 years.

We don’t always see things coming. Our lives can change in a year, a month, a day or even a minute. We don’t always know what is going to come next and that is part of the excitement.

Sometimes the things that happen are not happy such as a loss of a relationship, loss of a friendship or loss of a loved one. Those things happen sometimes for reasons we can’t understand.

But those happy times; the birth of a child, the start of a friendship, a wedding or even the start of a relationship, those are the things that bring a smile to our face.

Though I don’t know what happens next for me and the crush, I am happy that things are up in the air. Makes the whole journey that much more enjoyable and exciting.

When the official date was announced for the new Sex and the City, my friend and I made plans to go to the midnight showing. Since things have been tight for me lately, I wasn’t sure if I would still be able to go. But my friend being generous, surprised me and told me we were still going and I could pay her back later. So we headed out to the 12:30am showing at one of my favorite theatres, The Arclight.

When we go there, many of the girls were dressed in their favorite fashions and of course shoes. My friend and I were just comfortable. We had thought about dressing up but hey it was the midnight showing. Some of the girls, well lets just say they pulled out all the stops. Sorry ladies, I didn’t see to many straight men there.

Since our showing was the last one of the night, or morning, it wasn’t to full which made it even better.

I did like the movie and of course the fashion, well most of it anyways. Some was a little crazy. I won’t say to much about the movie as I know most of you haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t want to spoil it, (though a certain female that makes a cameo looks AMAZING!) I will say that like I told Michael Patrick King when I met him, “When I have writer’s block, I pop in one of the Sex and the City dvds and the inspiration comes to me.” And after watching the movie tonight, it was no different.

Like many others, I am a closet Bachelor fan. I love the show. I used to just watch it when it got down to 4 or 5 girls. (I also watch the Bachelorette the same way). I like to see the drama at the end unfold. And it usually does.

When Jason, the single dad from Seattle, got dumped on the Bachelorette, I had a feeling he would be the next Bachelor and even considered trying out for the show. When I told people I was thinking about it, they said, “Really?”. I knew what they were thinking, there has never been a plus size girl on the show. (Well there was once but she ended up being sent home because the guy thought of her more of a friend then wife material). The more I thought about trying out for the show, I realized, I might not even make it past the application process, so I gave up that dream, and now am glad I did after that season of the Bachelor aired, he did end up with a woman from my homestate though.

This season of The Bachelor is filled with even more drama, him sending four girls home in one episode, that hasn’t happened. Way to speed things up Jake. You have to give him props though, he knows what he is looking for and if he doesn’t feel it with them, he sends them home and doesn’t waste anyone’s time. There is also a shock as to why he keeps one girl around, Vienna. I don’t understand it either, because I’m sorry Jake, but the girl is CRAZY!! Jumping into bed with you on a two and one date, Seriously not cool. Then in her confessionals, she gets all pissy that there are other girls around. WAKE UP, you knew what you were getting into when you signed up for the show. Don’t act like you haven’t seen the show before. Get over yourself.

You can’t help who you fall for and have to follow your heart. I give props to Jake for not sending the women home he doesn’t feel that spark with.

The drama of last night, Ali (the one girl everyone has been rooting for), had to leave the show because of work. And according to Reality Steve, she does not come back. And yes Reality Steve is usually right.

No one would have ever thought the Saints would make it to the Super Bowl but everyone is excited, especially the city of New Orleans. They are still trying to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The Saints making it to the Super Bowl has given the city hope. For those of us that don’t know who to root for because our particular team didn’t make it to the big game, we are rooting for the Saints. Sort of a Cindarella story.

Most men watch the game for the Football. While most women watch it for the ads. Okay all of us watch it for the ads, even those of us that have a love for the game. We like to see what outrageous things companies will come up with to get us talking around the water cooler on Monday.

This year the big news is that Pepsi is pulling out of their Super Bowl ad contract. They have decided to pull out and put that money into Social Marketing for their Refresh campaign. A big move for a big company and one that has been known to always advertise for the Super Bowl. Those companies that are advertising are:

Coca Cola one ad will feature Mr. Burns from The Simpsons Denny’s who is once again offering a special nationwide like they did last year Hyundai Kia Budweiser for the first time will not have an ad with the famous Clydesdales but are focusing on their new slogan, “Here we go” Audi Boost Mobile which will be bringing back the Super Bowl Shuffle with the guys that started it all Bridgestone will once again be sponsoring the halftime show that will feature the rock group, The Who. A performance I am looking forward to. ETrade yes will again have a commercial with the baby. What is he going to say this year? Monster is one of the big advertiser with many ads even during the extended pre-game show during which they announced the winner of the Director of Fandemonium contest. Universal Studios will have at least one ad spot that will be a trailer for an upcoming release and will also have an ad for Universal Studios Orlando. Paramount will be promoting either Shutter Island, Iron Man 2 and The Last Airbender Walt Disney will also have one spot. Hopefully they promote Alice in Wonderland
There are many more advertisers this year and we will all be tuned in.

Now as I am sitting here watching the extended pre-game show, Steve Winwood is singing “Higher Love”. Earlier Daughtry sang their lastest it. The performance I am looking forward to is the halftime show which will feature The Who. A band that has been around a long time but is making their first ever Super Bowl appearance.

Hopefully this game will be close as President Obama just mandated during his interview during Katie Couric.

It is almost that time of the year. The time of year when that most people look forward to and count down to. The one day of year that gets more publicity and ad time then any other. I’m not talking about Thanksgiving or Christmas. I’m talking about BLACK FRIDAY.

There are lots of people that look forward to Black Friday. They watch the ads that have been playing nonstop for the past week. They can’t wait until the stores have their Black Friday ads out.

Like the past few years, all of the Black Friday ads have been leaked onto the internet early. This year the ads got leaked sooner and the stores set up their Christmas displays earlier. All in hopes that it will stimulate sales and help their revenue.

This year stores are doing whatever they can to give the best deals and get as many shoppers to their doors as possible. Old Navy is opening their doors at 3am on Friday while others are opening up at 4am. Some are even going as far as opening on Thanksgiving and staying open for 24 hours. Wal-Mart is going as far as allowing customers to camp out next to the item they want to buy. There is going to be a long line in front of those few $128 flat screens they have.

I am not one of those people that will be camped out on Thanksgiving waiting for the stores to open. I will not be one of those people that they will interview on the nightly news in front of Best Buy.

I will instead be one of the people that will be taking advantage of Borders’ Wednesday sale and even possibly New York and Company’s online sale.

I will be that person sleeping in on Friday, getting rid of my Turkey coma. You can not pay me enough to camp out for 2 days just for a deal.

Today I got up worked, went to the gym and got ready to meet Andre Agassi. I have watched him play Tennis since I was 12 years, as my mom recently reminded me. The only reason I would watch Tennis was to see him hit that ball across the court. I have always been a big fan of him and the hair.

Last week my mom texted me that Andre was making an appearance on Regis and Kelly to talk about his new book. I was unable to watch it because I was going to be working at that time. Later when I talked to her, she said he did a signing at Barnes& Noble in New York and that I should see if he was going to be in LA. My thinking was he probably already did a signing in LA. (It would make sense he lives in Vegas.) After doing a lot of searching online, I found that he was going to be doing a signing on Wednesday November 18 at a Borders in Century City, about 20 minutes away from my house. That Friday I bought the book and literally counted down the days until I could meet him.

Once I got to the store an hour and a half early there was already a long line outside the store. I went inside to get my wristband and secure my place in line. I then found out that they had been giving out wristband since 10am and people were able to start lining up at 5:30, which was 2 hours before the signing started. I was a little bit further back in the line then I expected I would be but made the most of it and started chatting with people around me.

After an hour and a half of waiting outside where it was a little chilly, I finally made it into the store and waited another 20 minutes until I got to the front of the line to get my book signed. He wasn’t personalizing any of the books but I didn’t care. I was still able to meet him and get a quick picture. And yes ladies, he still looks good!

Though there was waiting, it was worth it to meet Andre. Next on my list to meet, Dave Grohl, J.J. Abrams, and Josh Schwartz. If anyone can help me out that would be great.